Knowing When Not To Interfere

A few days ago I was walking behind a mother who was screaming at her young son. She hurled words like “Go away from me, I don’t want you.” In my broken-heartedness for the child who had to put up with rejection by his own mother, I almost went up to him to say “Don’t [...]

Accepting Those Who Are Different

Most of us readily pay lip service to the fact that people are different and that’s what makes life interesting and so on. How much do we really accept those who are different from us in some fundamental way? Ebony and ivory live together in perfect harmony Side by side on my piano keyboard Oh [...]

Seek First To Understand

It is human nature to want to be understood. Our thoughts, desires, and needs are so important to us that we want them to be important to others too. Yet understanding requires both the thing to be understood, and a mind to do the understanding. Nothing will be understood until someone makes the effort to [...]

Eat Humble Pie

I love my desserts just like everyone else, but humble pie is certainly not one of them! Yet this is an essential part of life’s diet. Those of us who are unable to admit our errors and apologise come across as arrogant, foolish, or both. This holds us back in our careers and relationships.

How do you know if you’re truly in the wrong, and how do you take the difficult step of being the first to back down and reach out? Read more…

This Too Shall Pass

While I fully advocate living in the present, being in the Now and all that, sometimes we need to know how to step out of the current moment. This may be one of those times, given the world’s economic situation.

Experts are saying that we are going through the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of 1929. People are losing their savings, investments, jobs, and sanity. Now, more than ever, we need to remind ourselves: This too shall pass. Read more…

Listen

Sometimes the simplest things can be the hardest to do. Like listening. I’m not sure if this is true of everyone, but I suspect it’s true of most people. When we listen, we aren’t actually hearing what the other person is saying. We’re too busy forming an opinion or drafting a response in our mind and therefore listening to our own thoughts instead of focusing on what the other person is saying.

Can you think of anyone who listens to you in a way that makes you feel truly heard? You come away feeling relieved, understood, stronger. And this person often didn’t even say very much.

I think the secret is that a good listener empties herself enough to make space for all the words you need to say. By being a receptacle for your thoughts, she allows you to unload your burden into that space, where you know it will be lovingly held.

Good listening then, can be achieved by not doing rather than doing. How do we empty our minds enough to listen well? Read more…

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